Editing Morrison Waite (section)

{{Short description|Chief Justice of the United States from 1874 to 1888}}
{{Redirect|Justice Waite}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Morrison Waite
| image               = Chief Justice Morrison Waite.jpg
| office1              = 7th [[Chief Justice of the United States]]
| nominator1           = [[Ulysses S. Grant]]
| term_start1          = March 4, 1874<!--Term start date as per www.supremecourt.gov, reflects date oath taken-->
| term_end1            = March 23, 1888<ref name=SCOTUSjustices>{{cite web| url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx| title= Justices 1789 to Present| publisher=Supreme Court of the United States| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 14, 2022}}</ref>
| predecessor1         = [[Salmon P. Chase]]
| successor1           = [[Melville Fuller]]
|office2 = Member of the [[Ohio House of Representatives]] from [[Lucas County, Ohio|Lucas]] and [[Henry County, Ohio|Henry]] Counties
|term_start2 = 1849
|term_end2 = 1850
|predecessor2 = Freeborn Potter
|successor2 = Samuel H. Steedman
|office3 = Mayor of [[Maumee, Ohio]]
|term_start3 = March 31, 1846
|term_end3 = March 30, 1847
|predecessor3 = Thomas Clark 2nd
|successor3 = John C. Allen
| birth_name          = Morrison Remick Waite
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1816|11|29}}
| birth_place         = [[Lyme, Connecticut]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1888|3|23|1816|11|29}}
| death_place         = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| party               = {{ubl|[[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] (before 1854)|[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] (1854–1888)}}
| spouse              = {{Marriage|Amelia Champlin Warner|September 21, 1840}}
| children            = 4
| education           = [[Yale College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| signature           = Morrison R Waite Signature.svg
| caption             = Portrait, {{c.}} 1870—1880
| resting_place       = [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Toledo, Ohio)|Woodlawn Cemetery]]
}}
'''Morrison Remick''' "'''Mott'''" '''Waite''' (November 29, 1816&nbsp;– March 23, 1888) was an American attorney, jurist, and politician from [[Ohio]] who served as the seventh [[chief justice of the United States]] from 1874 until his death in 1888. During his tenure, the [[Waite Court]] took a narrow interpretation of federal authority related to laws and amendments that were enacted during the [[Reconstruction Era]] to expand the rights of [[Freedman|freedmen]] and protect them from attacks by [[white supremacy]] groups such as the [[Ku Klux Klan]].

Born in [[Lyme, Connecticut]], Waite established a legal practice in [[Toledo, Ohio]], after graduating from [[Yale University]]. As a member of the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]], Waite won election to the [[Ohio House of Representatives]]. An opponent of [[slavery in the United States|slavery]], he helped establish the [[Ohio Republican Party]]. He served as a counsel in the [[Alabama Claims]] and presided over the [[Constitution of Ohio#1873 constitutional convention|1873 Ohio constitutional convention]].

After the May 1873 death of Chief Justice [[Salmon P. Chase]], President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] underwent a prolonged search for Chase's successor. With the backing of [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[Columbus Delano]], Grant nominated Waite in January 1874. The nomination of the relatively obscure Waite was poorly received by some prominent politicians, but the [[United States Senate|Senate]] unanimously confirmed Waite and he took office in March 1874. Despite some support for his nomination, he declined to run for president in the [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 election]], arguing that the Supreme Court should not serve as a mere stepping stone to higher office. He served on the court until his death of [[pneumonia]] in 1888.

Waite did not emerge as an important intellectual force on the Supreme Court, but he was well regarded as an administrator and conciliator. He sought a balance between federal and state power and joined with most other Justices in narrowly interpreting the [[Reconstruction Amendments]]. His majority opinion in ''[[Munn v. Illinois]]'' upheld government regulation of grain elevators and railroads and influenced constitutional understandings of government regulation. He also helped establish the legal concept of [[corporate personhood]] in the United States. However in the ''[[Civil Rights Cases]]''<ref>109 U.S. 3 (1883)</ref> he sided with a majority to strike down the [[Civil Rights Act of 1875]], which had prohibited discrimination in access to public services, that was not restored until the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].